Engineered earth berms are becoming more and more popular as retaining walls used to provide additional airspace for landfills and other facilities without additional lateral expansion of the facility.
Engineered earth berms have a steeply sloped to vertical face constructed of compacted fill material, which may be earth or soil. A mechanically stabilized earth berm includes vertically spaced, horizontal mechanical reinforcement members that resist deformation of the compacted fill material and enable construction of berms to increasingly greater heights.
The faces of engineered earth berms are often oriented such that relatively large amounts of solar energy impinge the face. It is desirable to develop a panel mounting system that mounts solar energy collector panels on the vertical face to collect solar energy. A panel mounting system should space the collector panels away from the face of the berm to enable the inclination angle of the collector panels to differ from the slope of the face. The space would also provide room for cabling, electrical converters, and other equipment used in conjunction with the collector panels, as well as access for repair. The panel mounting system should resist vertical loads generated by the collector panels and transverse loads generated by wind and the like. The panel mounting system must also be compatible with the construction of mechanically stabilized earth berms.